You are a business owner. You do everything, and you do a whole lot of it very well, but one person can only do so much! Learning to delegate is an important skill for every entrepreneur. Many things can and should be left to the professionals, which is why you may find yourself here looking for a web designer in Charleston, SC.
Dodeline Design has been around since 2009, but founder Sarah Reed has been designing websites since long before that. She taught herself HTML at the age of 12 and started building websites for fun and eventually for her dad’s small business. Check out this snapshot from over twenty years ago (obviously some stuff is not rendering correctly, but you get the idea…) of one of the websites she built, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:
After graduating from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia in 2009, Sarah decided to go back to her web design roots now armed with the graphic design know-how she’d learned in school. Just because it’s fun to see where it all started and the Wayback Machine is a bit addicting, here’s what www.dodelinedesign.com looked like all the way back in early 2011…
While Dodeline still does all of those same things – a super fun card and product line over at shopsoutherngoods.com, website design, logo and branding and more – we’ve grown up a lot since then. Having started Dodeline literally on the dining room table in a one bedroom apartment with absolutely no funds, Sarah and the team really understand what it’s like to start and grow a small business.
So when you need website design in Charleston, Dodeline is the team you need! Before beginning the process, you’ll sit down with Sarah to discuss your needs as a business owner and company. Some clients need more help than others and that’s okay – we’ll figure out what your needs are and go from there. Occasionally a team will need to be assembled – web designer (that’s us!), social media expert, videographer and photographer – and sometimes we’ll start small and build from there.
After the needs have been identified, you’ll receive a quote from Dodeline to design, build and create a website. Most clients have questions about what exactly a web designer does and what would be included in a website design process. Here are a few things you would expect to be included in a standard website build:
- Sitemap layout / proposal
- Design and building of the overall framework (think of this like a floorplan of a house)
- Inputting content on a specified number of pages, products, etc.
- Some level of graphics creation corresponding to an existing brand
- Basic security setup
- Basic SEO (keep in mind SEO is an ongoing process, so we’re simple talking about setting up initial meta descriptions here)
- A slideshow or a few other special items that make the website stand out
Some things that are not typically part of a normal website build include:
- Writing content – this is the responsibility of the client. You know your business better than anyone so writing and confirming the accuracy of content is an important part where the actual business members to be involved. A content writer can be brought in if needed.
- Photography and videography – clients provide images and video or we coordinate with other professionals to set up a shoot.
- Brand identity – developing a logo and/or brand is an entirely separate process.
It’s important to remember that, even when you hire a talented web designer, you’ll need to be involved in the process. A good web designer will take all of the actual design, building and technical stuff off your plate, but that doesn’t mean you’re not needed! To create the best and most accurate product for a client, web design teams need input and guidance from the business owners. So be prepared to dig in a bit and really devote some time and effort to getting your website right.
Once you’ve spent the time to create that content and think it all through, you won’t regret it. A solid website pays off in so many ways: selling new clients on your service, making life easier for existing clients, and hopefully making your life easier by answering customers’ oft-asked questions and cutting down on emails/calls in that regard.
On that note, you may be wondering what tasks Sarah and Dodeline have decided to delegate as the business has grown. Obviously, the web design piece is not one of them for us, but several other items are — the biggest item is probably bookkeeping, which was a huge relief to take off our schedule. We use Bench.co for that in conjunction with Freshbooks. Another one is photography, and we use a variety of photographers in Charleston, SC to make our social media and our websites look top notch. We love using our small business to support other small businesses.
Here at Dodeline, we’d love to hear from you and discuss your business and web design needs. We’re just a phone call away!
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